25. Chapter 25
Chapter 25
Matt
Riley
It looks like the leaves are starting to change on the mountains. Emery is losing her mind over it.
Matt
We could go for a drive to look at them this weekend.
The apple festival in Fairview is the weekend. Emery won’t let me forget it. She made a calendar invite and everything.
Come with us?
Of course I will, as long as she is okay with it. I don’t want to crash your time with your sister.
She’ll be okay with it. She likes hanging out with us.
We could make it a double date. Give her a taste of her own medicine. You could bring Oliver so I can finally meet him.
I’ll see what I can do.
She won’t kill me for this will she? You know I’m afraid of her.
Her bark is bigger than her bite.
I’ll tell her it was my idea.
I knew Oliver wasn’t going to go for the idea, but I couldn’t tell Riley that. If he was the only person in my life she felt comfortable meeting then I was going to make it happen no matter what it took. He was a good friend and would do anything for me, but he was also stubborn. Since his grandparents passed away and left their auto shop to him the shop had completely consumed his life. Ava had been driving me crazy trying to get him away from the place more. Even Shelby frequently told me how he seemed to walk around with the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The guilt of how much I had neglected our friendship in the years I had been gone ate at me constantly. Oliver would do anything for me, but I never did enough to return the favor.
That’s how I found myself at the shop after school. I knew there would be questions from everyone about Riley, questions I didn’t have answers to, but I also knew that everyone would help me put pressure on Oliver to say yes. The man was there six days a week and often worked shifts longer than twelve hours. We caught him working Sundays when the shop was closed a few times.
Pop would be disappointed in him if he knew.
The team was lined up in front of the shop, varying looks of irritation on their faces as Shelby called instructions to them from behind her camera. Oliver stood in the middle, arms crossed and jaw clenched. Aubrey was next to him, rubbing one shoulder and saying something I couldn’t hear. Wade was to his left scowling as Shelby told him that hadn’t been smiling enough. Drew leaned against the shop on the other side of Aubrey playing on his phone.
“What’s up?” I asked, walking up behind Shelby.
“I’m trying to get a group shot for the website, but no one wants to cooperate,” Shelby whined in response.
“You got the shot fifty takes ago. We have work to do,” Oliver grunted.
“Oliver be nice or I’m calling Ava. Let Shelby do the job you hired her for.” Aubrey held her phone up, Ava’s contact pulled up as a threat. Oliver let out a huff and let his arms drop. Ava was a force no one wanted to mess with.
I watched as Shelby instructed everyone into several poses. The second she lowered her camera, everyone broke apart, rushing back to the cars they had been working on.
She huddled next to me so I could see the small screen on her camera as she scrolled through all the photos she had taken today. I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched the progression of irritation on everyone’s faces in the group photos. There were also an assortment of candid and posed photos of the guys in the shop working. No wonder they were all so annoyed with her. It looked like she had been taking photos of them all day.
“Give me a second to get a bay cleared and I’ll pull your car in,” Oliver hollered from the open bay door next to us.
I shook my head. “I’m actually here to ask you for a favor.” I walked into the shop, Shelby following behind me. Wade and Drew kept working, both wearing headphones, but Aubrey and Shelby stuck close by. Maybe the two of them would be all the backup I needed. “How do you feel about a double date this weekend?” I asked.
He turned his back to us, focusing all his attention to arranging the tools in his toolbox. “Don’t have time.” He lifted his ball cap and ran a hand through his dark wavy hair. It was the longest I had seen it in years, a step away from long enough to tie back. He always hated having his haircut and would grow it out until it bothered him enough that he had to get it cut. This was past that point. Guilt for not noticing how much he had been neglecting himself ate at the pit of my stomach.
“It’s on a Sunday,” I offered in the most upbeat tone I could muster. “You won’t have to miss any work, man.”
“You should go, Oliver. You haven’t been on a date in years,” Aubrey offered from beside me.
He rubbed a hand over his beard. “I’m really not interested.” It was the least like himself he’d ever sounded. The Oliver I knew had never been one to say no to a date. Relationships had never been his thing, but he had always been a serial dater. I didn’t think he’d gotten bad enough he wouldn’t even consider a date.
“We won’t call it a date then.” I paused and leaned in closer to him, lowering my voice like I didn’t want the girls to hear. I wouldn’t hear the end of this from Shelby, but it was the only card I had to play. “Remember that girl I told you about?” I asked.
He nodded, turning his back to lean against his toolbox and crossing his arms.
“Do we get to meet her?” Shelby asked.
I shook my head. “Sorry, Shelby, she still isn’t ready for that.” I turned back to Oliver. “She’s okay with meeting you.”
There was a collective gasp from Shelby and Aubrey. “You have to do it, Oliver. I need to know all about her,” Shelby said. At the same time Aubrey said, “you need the break.” It escalated from there until Aubrey had her phone out in a threat and the two of them were talking over each other so much I couldn’t understand a word that was being said. Oliver glared at me from under his hat like he wanted to murder me. I shrugged and smiled like it didn’t bother me.
It bothered me. I was a shitty friend that hadn’t been there for him when he needed me because I was too wrapped up in my own life and now I was asking him to do something for me. It was for him too , I told myself. He needed to get out of this shop.
“She’s the one, Oliver. I know it this time. You’ve got to meet her. She’s bringing her sister. It doesn’t have to be a date. Just come with us and have some fun.” I waited for him to call me out. How many times did I say Liz was the one? He had every right to point it out. I had been so sure then and look at where I had ended up.
Riley was it, though. I had known it from the first time I saw her in front of that café. I had known it the days leading up to that date. Everything with her was easy. Everything with her just felt right. Being with her was the kind of love I had wished for growing up and watching my parents together.
“Why me?” he asked.
“Because you’re my best friend.” I could already see him starting to fold, his shoulders relaxing and the tension in his forearms fading. “You’re like a brother to me,” I piled on. His jaw worked as he clenched his teeth and then rubbed his hand over his beard again. He dropped his arms.
“She doesn’t want to meet Shelby?” He was reaching for an excuse.
I shot Shelby an apologetic look. She nodded softly at me, seeming to understand the situation. After Oliver she was my next closest friend despite our four year age difference. “Of course she does, but not yet.” I rolled my lips together trying to decide how to explain the situation. “It’s just complicated.”
His arms crossed back over his chest, and he narrowed his eyes. “Explain,” he barked. He slipped into what I always called his guard dog mode growing up. Protective older brother mode. My heart raced at the thought of him having anything bad to say about Riley.
“We’re just taking things slow.”
“Snail’s pace slow,” Shelby added.
I shot her look that said she wasn’t helping.
“I know you don’t want to see him get his heartbroken, Oliver. How are you going to do that if you aren’t willing to meet her?” Shelby added with a smirk. She poked her tongue out at me and subtly flipped me off with the hand holding her camera.
“I can work some extra hours this week to make sure we don’t get behind,” a quiet voice said beside me. I turned to see Drew had joined us; one earbud clutched in his hand. I clapped him on the shoulder. “He really does need a break,” Drew whispered to me. He shoved the earbud back in his ear and spun on his feet to get back to work.
“Baby bro has spoken, man. It’s worse than I thought,” I said to Oliver. He uncrossed his arms and recrossed them a few times before running his hands through his hair again. “Let Ava cut your hair before then, okay?”
Oliver would do anything for the people that he cared about, but his biggest weakness was Drew. He was the youngest of the family and took everything that happened with their dad the hardest. Oliver’s protective instinct over me was nothing compared to the lengths he would go through for Drew. While the rest of us had to bully him into taking care of himself, Drew just had to ask.
“One date, that’s it.” Oliver shoved past us to climb in the driver’s seat of the car he had been working on, effectively ending the conversation. Aubrey gave me a thumbs up as she headed back up to the lobby.
Now I just had to hope that Emery didn’t murder all of us for this. Or worse, that her and Oliver didn’t team up to murder me.